North Korea has escalated its war of words with the U.S., repeating a threat on Thursday to call off the planned June 12 summit with President Donald Trump and warning that a “nuclear showdown” could instead be on the table. Choe took aim at Vice President Mike Pence in particular, calling him a “political dummy” who’d offended North Korea with his “unbridled and impudent” comments.

The body of 35-year-old Timothy Cunningham was found by fishermen in the Chattahoochee River on April 3, bringing the long and confounding search for the missing CDC worker to a tragic end. Cunningham, a highly regarded epidemiologist at the CDC, disappeared without a trace after he left work mid-day in February, complaining of feeling ill. After Cunningham failed to report to work or contact his family for two days following his disappearance, his parents, Terrell and Tia-Juana Cunningham, drove down to Georgia from their house in Maryland to check on their son.

A prominent Southern Baptist Church leader who is known to have made inappropriate comments about abuse and women’s bodies was removed from his position early Wednesday after thousands of evangelical women signed a petition calling for his ouster. Paige Patterson, formerly the head of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, was demoted to president emeritus of the church after a 13-hour board meeting on Tuesday, according to a statement. Dr. D. Jeffrey Bingham, dean of the School of Theology, was appointed as interim president.

Middlebury College students turn their backs on Charles Murray, unseen, during his lecture in Middlebury, Vt., on March 2, 2017. Hundreds of college students protested the lecture. Like a classic college bull session, Tuesday’s congressional hearing on free speech in higher education included some rancor, some laughter and more than a little intellectual showboating.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday he could support stronger regulations for gun storage and quicker reporting to law enforcement when a court has determined someone is mentally ill in order to keep them from having weapons. Abbott said those were top considerations to emerge after meeting representatives of a gun control group and gun owners as well as mental health and education experts in discussions on school safety after 10 people were killed last week in a shooting at a high school near Houston. "We have one goal ... making sure we're going to keep to our students, our schools, our communities safer," without limiting the right to bear arms, Abbott said.

Rachel Maddow reports on the plea deal by Michael Cohen's business partner, Evgeny Freidman, in a case involving his taxi business that makes it likely he'll help prosecutors in Cohen's case, making him, in turn, more likely to make a deal

A 28-year-old woman who finally earned her “dream job” working as a grizzly bear researcher is now recovering in the hospital from serious injuries after she was attacked by one of the powerful animals

A new report suggests that there has been a startling increase in the number of instances where US Border Patrol officers have abused children seeking shelter in the United States from violence and poverty in Central America. The report, based on more than 30,000 pages of Border Patrol reports obtained by chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) through Freedom of Information Act requests, alleges a "pattern of inimidation, harassment, physical abuse, refusal of medical services, and improper deportation between 2009 and 2014." The report follows after a previous disclosure from the ACLU that detailed 116 incidents where officers were alleged to have physically, sexually, or psychologically abused children between the ages of five and 17. A quarter of those cases were reports of alleged physical abuse, while half were alleged verbal abuse, including death threats.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday rushed to the defense of conservative commentator Tomi Lahren, who was heckled in a restaurant and had water thrown at her. It took Trump 24 hours to personally acknowledge white supremacist Tomi Lahren for getting a drink thrown on her.

Lizzie Pannill Fletcher, a corporate attorney, won the Democratic nomination for Texas’ 7th Congressional District on Tuesday, reassuring national Democrats eager to flip the GOP-held seat. Fletcher’s win in a runoff reflects the preference of primary voters for a mainstream Democrat capable of appealing to enough of the affluent, suburban Houston district’s Republican voters. It also delivers a victory for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the official body charged with electing the party’s candidates to the House.

Amnesty International on Thursday urged Nigeria to act on claims soldiers and members of the civilian militia have raped women and girls in remote camps for people displaced by Boko Haram but the government said the rights monitor was repeating false accusations. Amnesty said it had gathered multiple testimonies about alleged abuse by the security forces, including claimed that soldiers coerced vulnerable survivors into having sex in exchange for food. In November 2016, police vowed to look into allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation in the camps but several months later, the military rejected the allegations.

Half a century later, the May 1968 demonstrations that brought millions of idealistic students and striking workers to the streets remain a watershed moment in France’s cultural history. The protests swept through a France that was still ruled by the strict conservatism of Gen. Charles de Gaulle, who was then president and banned the concerts of French rocker Johnny Hallyday for causing scenes of mass hysteria. Gökşin Sipahioğlu, a Turkish photojournalist and one of the father figures of photojournalism, covered news stories from the 1956 war in the Sinai Peninsula to Mao’s revolution in China, the Cuban missile crisis, the 1972 Munich Olympics killings, and the Prague Spring and Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.

2018 might well be dubbed the year of the Mediterranean diet. Not only did it tie for the best overall diet in the U.S. News Best Diets rankings in January, but this year also marks the Mediterranean diet pyramid's 25th anniversary. Beyond being linked to a host of powerful health benefits including a reduction in heart disease risk, potential weight loss, improved brain health and longevity, much of the eating pattern's staying power can be attributed to its flexibility -- there aren't entire food groups excluded, and followers don't calorie count or track macros.

Britain blames Russia for poisoning them with a military-grade nerve agent — a charge Russia vehemently denies. The poisoning has sparked a Cold War-style diplomatic crisis between Russia and the West, including the expulsion of hundreds of diplomats from both sides. Yulia was discharged from a local hospital last month, and her father last week.

Lawmakers in the California Assembly voted Monday to advance a bill that would authorize employers, co-workers and school personnel to request the temporary confiscation of guns from individuals determined to pose a danger to themselves or others. The legislation, AB 2888, would build on California’s existing “red flag” law, passed in 2014 following a deadly shooting spree in Isla Vista. The current red flag law gives family members, roommates and law enforcement officers the power to petition the court to remove firearms from individuals who have displayed dangerous behavior.

A Cleveland Indians pitcher is responding to complaints about a cryptic message he wrote in the dirt of the pitcher's mound that some claim he alluded to the conspiracy theory that President George W. Bush was behind the Sept. 11 attacks. The uproar began after Trevor Bauer used his cleat to scrawl "BD 91.1" in the mound Tuesday night at Chicago's Wrigley Field. Immediately following the game, Bauer shot down the accusations.

The American Civil Liberties Union is fighting to end the monthslong detention of an undocumented gay man by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Pennsylvania. On Tuesday, the ACLU of Pennsylvania filed a legal complaint in federal district court, asking the judge to order the release of Jose “Ivan” Nuñez, a Mexican man held by ICE since Jan. 31. According to the court filings, Nuñez came to the U.S. 17 years ago because he feared persecution in his home state of Michoacán due to his sexual orientation.

A federal judge in California ordered a law firm linked to Stormy Daniels' attorney to pay $10 million on Tuesday to a lawyer who claimed that the firm had misstated its profits and that he was owed millions. The judgment came after Jason Frank, who used to work at Eagan Avenatti, alleged that that the law firm failed to pay a $4.85 million settlement he had reached in December. Frank had worked at Avenatti's firm under an independent contractor agreement and was supposed to collect 25 percent of the firm's annual profits, along with 20 percent of fees his clients paid, according to court documents.

Earlier this month, local media first revealed the grocer’s $670,000 in donations over the last three years to Republican candidate Adam Putnam, Florida’s current agriculture commissioner. Putnam, who brands himself as a lifelong gun owner, opposed Gov. Rick Scott’s (R) gun control law signed in the wake of February’s deadly mass shooting at a Parkland, Florida, high school. Putnam had said Scott’s decision to raise the age to purchase a rifle or a shotgun from 18 to 21 “destroys the family tradition of possessing and practicing safe use of firearms.” The National Rifle Association, which immediately sued to block the gun law, applauded Putnam’s stance.

Most parents are living the life of "empty nesters" by the time their children reach 30, but one US couple had to go to court to give their son that extra little push. "We don't talk, we stay out of each other's way," Rotondo told US media.

US scientists found a Spanish galleon laden with treasure worth up to £12.6bn ($17bn) at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea, more than 300 years after it sank. The San Jose, considered the holy grail of shipwrecks, was discovered three years ago off the coast of Colombia but few details were released at the time. The 62-gun, three-masted galleon sank in June 1708, during a battle with British ships in the War of Spanish Succession, with the loss of nearly 600 lives.

An Australian grandmother who said she was tricked into carrying drugs into Malaysia after falling for an online romance scam was Thursday sentenced to death after an earlier acquittal was overturned, her lawyer said. Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto was arrested in December 2014 while in transit at Kuala Lumpur airport with 1.1 kilos (2.4 pounds) of crystal methamphetamine stitched into the compartment of a backpack she was carrying. Anyone caught with at least 50 grams (1.75 ounces) of crystal meth is considered a trafficker in Muslim-majority Malaysia, and death by hanging is mandatory in the case of a conviction.

The withdrawal of Iranian forces from Syria, demanded by the United States, is not up for discussion, a top Syrian official was quoted as saying on Wednesday, adding that Damascus was deciding on its next campaign against rebels. "Whether Iranian forces or Hezbollah withdraw or stay in Syria is not up for discussion because it's the (business) of the Syrian government," Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said in an interview with Russia's Sputnik state news agency.